Kendra Haste is an sculptor born in 1971 who lives and works in Surrey. She's an MA graduate from the Royal College of Art, London (1998).

Since the 90s she has presented his work in a number of exhibitions.

Her work focuses on animals, and uses as a material galvanized wire mesh. It is remarkable expressiveness and vital force in the representation of animals that achieved with a material a priori as rough and unkind.

Kendra has established a significant reputation in her field with work included in collections world-wide. She is a member of the Society of Wildlife Artsists (UK) and a signature member of the Sociey of Animal Artists (USA).

«Animals have held an obsessive fascination for me throughout my life. Their diverse form, nature and behaviour provide a rich and inexhaustible depth of subject. Animals have been for many years and continue to be the sole focus of my work as a sculptor.

The apparent ordinariness of wire and wire mesh belie their expressive potential and provide ideal material for my sculptures. Drawing is integral to my work as an artist and is perfectly matched by the linear qualities of wire. No other material I have ever used has been able to suggest the sense of movement and life, of contour and volume, the contrasts of weight and lightness, of solidity and transparency - values that I find in my natural subjects. It is the perfect medium, inviting continuing exploration and challenge.»

«I have been privileged to study many of my subjects in the wild; amazing expeditions, whether tracking tigers in India, or following wildebeest migrations through Tanzania. Direct and intimate study of animals is essential. I spend much time in zoos drawing the phenomena of anatomy and musculature, however, such analysis does not overwhelm my work for it is the spirit and energy of the subject that I fundamentally seek to convey. My sculptures are depictions of individual animals I have encountered, those I have spent time observing or who have left a deep impression on me. These are unique portraits, rather than stereotypical, generalized interpretations of a species.»

«I was brought up in London, a childhood with few animals and little experience of wild places or even the countryside. Mine was very much an urban experience, separate from the natural world. My attraction to wild animals was born of the desire to connect with and discover something in their nature which has long ago been lost within ourselves. These pre-occupations became obsessive and led me to study, in particular, the larger mammals and of course primates with whom we share so much - flesh, blood and muscle as well as traits of behaviour. But it is other quite unique aspects; the sense of another being, an individual spirit, inherent in each animal that is the true subject for my work.»

Palacios Reales Históricos, Torre de Londres / Historic Royal Palaces, Tower of London

The first record of the presence of wild animals in the Tower of London dates from 1210.

Since the reign of King John animals were kept at the Tower for the entertainment and curiosity of the court. Everything from elephants to tigers, kangaroos and ostriches lived in what was known as the Royal Menagerie.

The bloody spectacles that made fighting the animals were very popular, and a platform was built so that the King and his courtiers could watch ir comfortably.

In later years, the variety of animals at the Tower increased and the Menagerie became a popular attraction.

The Menagerie finally closed after several incidents where the animals had escaped and attacked each other, visitors and Tower staff. The Duke of Wellington ordered the animals to leave and in 1832 the remaining animals were moved to Regents Park to help establish London Zoo.

In Daniel Hahn's book "The Tower Menagerie: The Amazing 600-Year History of the Royal Collection of Wild and Ferocious Beasts Kept at the Tower of London", you can read the history of this place and its inhabitants - from a polar bear who fished the Thames nightly for his dinner to elephants who drank only wine. It all started with a wedding gift: three leopards from King Henry III's new brother-in-law, Frederick the Holy Roman Emperor, in 1235. Soon after, a huge Norwegian polar bear joined them. Over the next six hundred years, the Tower played host to lions, ostriches, elephants, and other unusual animals that astonished London. The book is brimming with unforgettable stories - the lion who kept a spaniel as a pet; ostriches who were fed a steady diet of rusty nails; lions who, their keepers claimed, could tell whether a woman was a virgin.

In 2010 Kendra was awarded a commission by the Historic Royal Palaces Commision to fabricate thirteen sculptures to celebrate the history of the Royal Menagerie at the Tower of London.

Life-size lions, baboons, a polar bear and an elephant, all constructed with Kendra's trademark material, galvanised wire, help tell the story of the exotic animals that were kept at the Tower, providing entertainment and spectacle for visitors. Included in the commission is one of the most famous Tower 'inmates', a polar bear (a gift from the King of Norway to Henry III in 1251) whose collar and chain allowed it to fish for food in the Thames without escaping.

Ivan Lapper is a British artist born in Bilston in Staffordshire. From the age of 12 he attended Bilston Art School, followed by Wolverhampton College of Art in 1954, and the Royal College of Art from 1959 to 1962.

Ivan Lapper has worked as a freelance artist in almost every field, providing illustrations for advertising, magazines and books, such as the Reader’s Digest, and was a regular contributor to the Radio Times in the 1970’s.

His illustrations for the press include, the first moon landing and the Aberfan disaster for the Daily Express, and the great train robbery for the Illustrated London News.

Ivan Lapper is well known for his many reconstruction paintings of prehistoric and Roman sites, towns, castles and historic houses, commissioned by museums, by English Heritage, CADW (Welsh Heritage) the National Trust and Historic Royal Palaces. His paintings can be seen at many centres both in Great Britain and abroad. He was commissioned to paint 14 reconstructions showing the development of the Tower of London for the Millennium Exhibition at the Tower of London in 2000; and a further 12 paintings for the Tower Hill Environs Centre at the Tower of London, opened by the Queen in 2004.

This is an open art blog, so you could find images eventually offensive or umconfortable.

If you're an artist and find here images of your art you want to be removed, just tell me and I'll do it immediately. I try to ask for permission always if artist is alive and there's a way to contact, bot not always is possible and there are things I think worth to be known.

In any case, the copyrights of all the images contained in this blog, except where noted, belong to the artists or the legal owners of such rights, and have been published nonprofit and for the only purpose of make the works known to the general public.

Enjoy "El Hurgador", make any comment you like (respecting artists, other visitors and myself), make suggestions, critics, leave your opinions and make your contributions. Always welcome.